DNA shocker

[NooshieW]

Hi,
Has anyone else done an Ancestry DNA test and had a surprise result?
I am not matched with people I always believed to be cousins, albeit not mega close cousins.
I have emailed and conversed with them for years,we have shared data, photos and I have a whole section of an album dedicated to a branch I am not connected too.
It seems my GT GT Grandmother, who was a woman of poor repute anyway, passed off my great grandmother as her husbands child.
I will never know who my gt gt grandfather is, but as my DNA is an unexpected 25% Scots, perhaps this is where it is!!

[medpat]

You could find your gt gt grandfather's family via a DNA match.

[NooshieW]

You could find your gt gt grandfather's family via a DNA match.

Apart from, sister, daughter and known close cousins, there are no other close matches at all

[coombs]

Hi,
Has anyone else done an Ancestry DNA test and had a surprise result?
I am not matched with people I always believed to be cousins, albeit not mega close cousins.
I have emailed and conversed with them for years,we have shared data, photos and I have a whole section of an album dedicated to a branch I am not connected too.
It seems my GT GT Grandmother, who was a woman of poor repute anyway, passed off my great grandmother as her husbands child.
I will never know who my gt gt grandfather is, but as my DNA is an unexpected 25% Scots, perhaps this is where it is!!

It could be other reasons as well, DNA is not infallible, and it can be easy to assume the worst because of no match with cousins. Unless I am trying to use wishful thinking and just do not want to believe the possibility of infidelity in our ancestors days was more common than I thought. To some biology means everything and to be honest I would be gutted if I did a DNA test and found that a beloved 3xgreat grandfather wasn't a blood ancestor.

Did your great grandmother have any siblings?

[NooshieW]

Hi,
Has anyone else done an Ancestry DNA test and had a surprise result?
I am not matched with people I always believed to be cousins, albeit not mega close cousins.
I have emailed and conversed with them for years,we have shared data, photos and I have a whole section of an album dedicated to a branch I am not connected too.
It seems my GT GT Grandmother, who was a woman of poor repute anyway, passed off my great grandmother as her husbands child.
I will never know who my gt gt grandfather is, but as my DNA is an unexpected 25% Scots, perhaps this is where it is!!

It could be other reasons as well, DNA is not infallible, and it can be easy to assume the worst because of no match with cousins. Unless I am trying to use wishful thinking and just do not want to believe the possibility of infidelity in our ancestors days was more common than I thought. To some biology means everything and to be honest I would be gutted if I did a DNA test and found that a beloved 3xgreat grandfather wasn't a blood ancestor.

Did your great grandmother have any siblings?

Yes she did, the issue is with her husband. None of the cousins on his line match my DNA, it is such a surprise, but given the occupation of his wife, not such a surprise.
I think I am upset that the people who I believed to be relatives aren’t, as I have built relationships with them and also the amount of work I’ve done on that branch of the tree.

[brigidmac]

I think your cousins are still your cousins regardless of blood connections .

If you share experiences that is important ..you can keep your tree and add on alternative parent in the appropriate box ..you could call him unknown scot .

My mother has parallel branches for her mothers adoptive family and the blood line .branch

As medpat says you could find a cluster of matches which lead to your great great grandfather
Either via a surname or a place of origin ..do you use the colour coding system.?


I had a surprise ...my mothers dna(who only has small amounts of scottish ) had a 3rd cousin.scottish connection to someone with my fathers surname in Canada !  turned out to be thru marriage

[NooshieW]

I think your cousins are still your cousins regardless of blood connections .

If you share experiences that is important ..you can keep your tree and add on alternative parent in the appropriate box ..you could call him unknown scot .

My mother has parallel branches for her mothers adoptive family and the blood line .branch

As medpat says you could find a cluster of matches which lead to your great great grandfather
Either via a surname or a place of origin ..do you use the colour coding system.?


I had a surprise ...my mothers dna(who only has small amounts of scottish ) had a 3rd cousin.scottish connection to someone with my fathers surname in Canada !  turned out to be thru marriage

Thanks, no I don’t use a colour coding system , what is that?

[brigidmac]

You allocate a colour to group your matches
for example:. you could choose coloure for each of your great grandparents and places

.create groups then you can add colour to  any shared match that you know how to connect


Also you can * star any matches of special interest

And you can create groups that you dont know how they connect but if a particular name keeps cropping up

So for example my full cousin has blue /light blue  + red+ pinkn represesnting shared  greatgranparents on paternal side and purple representing their town of origin

Half cousin only has purple and blue

Choose your own system but its useful even if a tree is closed you can sometimes tell from mutual matches which branch they belong to so you can add a colour  theres facility to add a note too

Hope thats clear

[Kiltpin]

We are back to NATURE or NURTURE, again. 

If you had not done the test, nothing would have changed. And in truth, nothing has changed - each and all of you are still the same person you were before. 

The ultimate example must be the loving couple celebrating their 60+ years of marriage. There might children, but between themselves there is no DNA link. 

Regards 

Chas